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Starblazer - 22/01/2014 – The idyllic San Blas islands



First of all, many apologies for not writing a blog on Sunday and wishing
niece Hester a very happy birthday and great-nephew Harry a very happy first
birthday and as well.

We arrived in the San Blas island group in the early hours of Saturday
morning, carefully felt our way in to a large, deep anchorage and crashed
for a few hours! In daylight it was stunning, with half a dozen small palm
tree covered islands and beyond them the crashing seas, breaking on the
surrounding reefs. This is no place for complacency, there are reefs
stretching out from most of the islands as well so a large anchorage may
well have several areas of reef within it. The area known as Kuna Yala
belongs to the Kuna Indians who are largely autonomous within Panama. They
are physically small, very happy people who really live an almost stone age
existence though we have seen one or two mobile phones and a few outboard
engines!

Our first contact was a dugout canoe paddled by three men who came to
collect a $10 US fee for anchoring for up to 31 days. They had an official
bit of paper, in English, stating that a law had been passed requiring us to
pay and, more unexpectedly, they handed us a receipt. The next dugout
unfortunately arrived just as we were about to go to an island for a fish
supper. This one was a family group, Dad paddling, junior helping and Mum
with her molas for sale. Subsequently we went ashore on Banedup Island
where a few families live. Using a very few words of Spanish, hand signals
and lots of smiles we asked permission to walk around the island. There
were two main huts which appeared to house families, a couple of closed up
huts, a copra packing shed and a generously sized pigsty with one resident.
We got back to where we had beached the dinghy and asked a young couple
(18ish) about molas. The girl raced off to the end of the island and
returned with two women, two buckets of molas, some beadwork
bracelets/anklets and about 8 small children! The couple who lived by our
landing place returned from the copra shed and the woman went in search of
her molas and jewellery. Molas are basically an applique/cutwork panel with
several layers of different coloured material, all sewn by hand. Each is
unique though clearly they know which designs are the most popular and vary
the colours! I had to buy some.

The fish supper on Saturday evening was on Barbecue Island, also known as
Turtles Island. A couple of enterprising Kuna men have set up a
bar/restaurant. For ‘restaurant’ read a rickety table, assorted stools,
covered by an awning and lit by a rechargeable lamp! 7 or 8 world ARC boats
had booked so they had to catch a big fish which was subsequently cooked
over a wood fire and we ate in relays. Fish with a pasta and rice salad
cost $5 each, beer was $1.50 a can. It was a convivial evening and we led
two other boats back towards their anchorage because we had put some
waypoints in a handheld GPS to ensure our safe return! In the end John
followed the trail around a reef of our journey to the island on the return
rather than bother with waypoints.

On Monday we left the East Hollandes Cays to make our way to the Chichime
Cays for a World ARC rendez-vous. We did get a little concerned when the
GPS gave a distance to a waypoint significantly different from the distance
to the same waypoint on the plotter. Reefs are rather unforgiving so,
erring on the side of caution, we took the Eden Channel rather than the
route between the East Lemon Cays. As we were anchoring two women paddled
up in a dugout to show me their wares. Yet again, I had to buy some! These
were cheaper probably because they were mainly applique rather than multiple
layers, but the stitching was really good. It was a very enjoyable
afternoon, with a coconut sliced open and rum added to the water to greet
us, a pot luck lunch, a dancing display by a group of men and women and a
couple of boys to make up the number, molas for sale and a ‘bar’ selling
beer and soft drinks. The dancers provided their own music, the men and
boys blowing into pipes, the women shaking rattles. The dance resembled a
square dance much like the ones we have enjoyed in Woodley!
We still have a few days left among the islands before we need to make our
way to Colon and the canal so deemed it sensible to go to Porvenir Island to
check in. Check in completed, we set off towards the Lemon Cays but the
swell gave us cause for concern about entering between two reefs so we
altered course back to the anchorage south of Uchutupu Dummat, the bigger
island in the Chichime Cays. Now it is time to go for a swim.

More soon. Joyce


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